Brotherhood

What Is Brotherhood? WJC Brotherhood is the men's organization of WJC. Our mission is to enhance the life of the WJC community through a wide range of programs and activities. Brotherhood is affiliated with the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs (http://fjmc.org/). Members pay $36 annual dues to support Brotherhood programs.

What Does Brotherhood Do? We do a lot! The Brotherhood organizes and sponsors an annual teach-in on a topic of interest to the community. We host several speakers throughout the year, often in conjunction with a Sunday brunch. Most of our programs are open to all WJC members. In addition to the teach-in and speaker series, our activities include:

Sound the Shofar: A mitzvah where we visit with nursing home residents and allow them to hear the sound of the shofar, first-hand.

Social Events: Our social events vary from year to year. Last year, we had a scotch tasting, a joint outing with Sisterhood to a Chava Alberstein concert, Biking for Bagels and a high end wine event on a Saturday evening.

Networking: Brotherhood introduced the WJC LinkedIn Group in September 2008. Our networking efforts have grown into a major shul-wide effort with its own committee -- the WJC Networking Group. Brotherhood is a co-sponsor of the Networking Group.

Annual Blood Drive: Our blood drive takes place on WJC's Mitzvah Day.

Sports: We sponsor a team that participates in the Westchester Hebrew Softball League. Last year, the team made it to the playoffs. We also host an annual golf outing (the Kiddush Cup) with Larchmont Temple. We also sponsor weekly evening basketball.

Team Tefillin: A team of 2 or 3 Brotherhood members meets with a b'nei mitzvah family in their home to teach them about the significance and logistics of putting on tefillin. For more information, please contact Mike Katz. We need lots of volunteers to make this program a success.

World Wide Wrap: Join with congregations around the world to celebrate the mitzvah of tefillin.

Steak & Torah (aka "Meat with the Clergy"): One of the few programs open to men only, this is a series of dinners at kosher restaurants locally and in Manhattan, with the Rabbi and Cantor. Given the economy, we have considered renaming this event "Hot Dogs and Haftarah" until further notice.

Brotherhood Shabbat: Once a year, Brotherhood takes over the Shabbat morning service, including all of the davening, leining and divrei Torah and we sponsor a beautiful Kiddush afterwards. This past year saw the debut of the Brotherhood Choir.

Film Series: Screening and discussion of several films with a common theme.

Hearing Men's Voices: We are working to bring back this popular multi-session program, in which we explore a topic such as "For Whom Do I Work?" in a non-threatening, Jewish setting. This program is open to men only.

Really Big Passover Raffle: Our annual fundraiser. The grand prize is two plane tickets to anywhere in the world.

Sounds great! Where can I get more info? Please feel free to contact WJC Brotherhood co-chairs Stu Seltzer and Rob Nazarzadeh with questions, ideas, thoughts, suggestions, etc. at [email protected].